1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing a grinder used for a grinding machine and to a grinding-particles packing apparatus, and more specifically to a method and an apparatus for fabricating a grinder used for a grinding machine, which is used for grinding a gear or the like and has recessed portions defined in the surface thereof and to a grinding-particles packing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has heretofore been known an electroplating method as a method of bonding grinding particles to a grinder matrix. There has been proposed, for example, a method of fabricating a grinder matrix and a mold having the shape corresponding to the grinder matrix, packing grinding particles into a space between the grinder matrix and the mold, and introducing a plating solution into the space so as to bond the grinding particles to the grinder matrix.
When, however, the grinder matrix has recessed portions defined in the surface thereof, there is a risk that the grinding particles cannot be reliably packed onto the recessed portions and the bonding of the grinding particles onto the surface of the grinder matrix become ill-balanced. Further, when the grinder matrix includes upwardly-facing surfaces and downwardly-facing surfaces, there is developed, during a plating process, inconvenience that the grinding particles electrodeposited on the downwardly-facing surfaces are relatively reduced in number and the grinding particles electrodeposited on the upwardly-facing surfaces increases in number. In order to solve such inconvenience, there has been proposed a method of coating grinding particles with a metal and magnetizing the coated grinding particles, and bonding the grinding particles to the grinder matrix in a stirred plating tank, thereby making it possible to uniformly electrodeposite the grinding particles even on recessed portions. However, a process for coating the grinding particles with the metal is troublesome and the metal film tends to cause grinding burning upon using the grinder. Further, the metal film increases costs.